Service to Notre Dame High School will begin on time
By: Cara Latham
Millstone students who attend Notre Dame High School in Lawrence will have busing this year.
Superintendent Mary Anne Donahue said she got the word from district Transportation Coordinator John Griffiths at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday that he had negotiated a deal with a company through the Monmouth Ocean Education Services Commission to provide two buses to transport those students this year.
Mr. Griffiths was able to get one company (Dr. Donahue could not provide the name Tuesday) to provide the service for $856 per pupil exactly the state’s cap. A previous bid for busing to Notre Dame came back over the state-required threshold at $1,049 per pupil, and the township, faced with making up the difference on its own, could not accept the services.
Dr. Donahue said Tuesday’s deal was reached through MOESC.
School officials have been working all summer to try to find a solution to the private school busing dilemma. Last week, school officials told about 50 parents during a school board meeting that there might not be transportation for private school during the first week of the school year.
The school district has been faced with a shortage of bus drivers, forcing the district to have to bid the routes to private companies. Officials continue to deal with a state law prohibiting them from offering busing to private-school students regardless of who drives the buses if the cost exceeds $856 per pupil.
In addition, new bus routes the district had to create as a result of the new middle school set to open in September on Waters Lane means that drivers now have to transport district students back and forth to four schools, rather than to just the former elementary and middle schools and Allentown High School.
The district transported 158 students to four private schools last year.
Also, as a result of the new bus routes, bus drivers will be working fewer hours, leaving them unavailable to do other runs outside of the district. School officials were left to resort to bidding for the services.
School officials had announced last week that they had found transportation for St. Rose of Lima, a parochial grammar school in Freehold, because bids for transportation to that school came in at $856 per pupil.
"We’re please we were able to make this happen," Dr. Donahue said of the Notre Dame deal. "We are continuing to work with MOESC to try to secure transportation with the remaining two schools."
District officials are still working on getting busing for students attending St. John Vianney High School in Holmdel and Christian Brothers Academy, in Lincroft.

